Monosodium Glutamate; discuss.

[Reforged]

[Kitan Etos]

People will always find ways of exploiting humanity through the gullible.

An individual publishes something in relation to how harmful something is, and health nuts eat it up without doing any proper research, and thus begins a fad whereby money can be made because gullible people want to be healthier.

[Anomalocaris]

I always thought polysodium glutamate was the way to go.

[Minimalist]

I'm still trying to figure out what "gluten" is.

[Kitan Etos]

I'm still trying to figure out what "gluten" is.

It is actually a necessary element found in wheat products. ONLY those who have celiac disease actually need gluten free products. But, as usual, the retarded health nuts think they need gluten free products too, even though they clearly do not. Those with celiac disease make up only a small portion of the population, and all those other people are merely following a fad without having done any real research. Of course, a perpetuation of the problem is labeling items gluten free that never even contained any wheat.

[Jackalope]

- In excessive doses it can cause "neurotoxicity".

Without more information, this is a wholly useless metric.

I'll note that consumed in sufficient quantity, water can kill you.

Likewise, oxygen is toxic if the partial pressure is high enough (fortunately, unless you're breathing enriched air underwater, you will never encounter a high enough partial pressure).

I'm sure that sodium, in sufficient quantity, will also do very bad things to your health.

[Reforged]

- In excessive doses it can cause "neurotoxicity".

Without more information, this is a wholly useless metric.  

I'll note that consumed in sufficient quantity, water can kill you.  

Likewise, oxygen is toxic if the partial pressure is high enough (fortunately, unless you're breathing enriched air underwater, you will never encounter a high enough partial pressure).

I'm sure that sodium, in sufficient quantity, will also do very bad things to your health.

Thats pretty much what I concluded. Alot of additives, naturally occurring and otherwise, could cause the same effect in large doses.

[Kitan Etos]

In essence, it is all about moderation.

[Jackalope]

In essence, it is all about moderation.

Usually, unless you're talking about something like polonium.

[I_am_not_mafia]

Of course, a perpetuation of the problem is labeling items gluten free that never even contained any wheat.

This isn't as stupid as you'd think. Sometimes you can look down the ingredients and not see anything wheat based in it at all and it will still cause problems. My husband is coeliac and even the slightest contamination will have him stuck on the toilet for the next few days. What often happens is that they use flour as part of the manufacturing process, for example, covering chocolate with flour on the conveyor belt so that it won't stick. Or there may be cross contamination with other products in the same factory that do contain wheat.

You would not believe how often wheat gets used in the food industry. Any sauces for example will most likely contain wheat as a thickener. Or at least the chance of them having so means that you can't take the risk. Even soy sauce, which means Asian restaurants are completely out of the question. The only place my husband can eat is at an Indian, or a steak house if he makes sure that they do not add any sauce.